Shell appoints C3 IoT and Microsoft Azure as its AI
platform
REDMOND, Washington and
HOUSTON, Sept. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday,
Royal Dutch Shell plc announced it
is broadening its work with Microsoft Corp. to help accelerate
industry transformation and innovation. Through this collaboration,
Shell will drive efficiencies across the company from drilling and
extraction to employee empowerment and collaboration, as well as
safety for its retail customers and employees.
As part of this deal, Shell announced it has selected C3 IoT
with Microsoft Azure as its artificial intelligence (AI) platform
to enable and accelerate digital transformation on a global scale.
Shell expects to realize substantial economic value by rapidly
scaling and replicating AI and machine learning applications across
its upstream and downstream businesses and improving operational
performance.
"Digital technologies are core to our strategy to strengthen our
position as a leading energy company," said Yuri Sebregts,
executive vice president for technology and CTO of Shell. "Our
collaboration with Microsoft gives us a solid digital platform to
make our core business more effective and efficient and supports
our ambition to provide more and cleaner energy solutions through
technology."
"Shell is demonstrating AI and IoT leadership in selecting C3
IoT and Azure for the Shell AI Platform," said Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT.
"This will enable Shell to rapidly realize the vision of digital
transformation across all lines of business, including upstream,
midstream, retail and finance."
"As one of the energy sector's largest and most prominent
players, Shell's wide-scale adoption of AI, machine learning and
IoT technologies sets an example of how digital transformation can
help the industry address resource challenges, improve asset
performance and promote safety," said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of
Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business. "We are excited to
deepen our relationship with Shell as the company continues to be a
digital pacesetter for the industry."
Shell has been driving digital technologies throughout its
business for many years, from subsea robotics in the 1970s to
helping in the development of RAM in the 1980s to process seismic
data. In fact, Shell already leverages Microsoft tools to enhance
people productivity and collaboration and is now embarking on
broader AI projects to drive industry-leading innovation.
These digital advances come by combining in-house development of
proprietary technologies with co-innovation alongside leading
companies like Microsoft. Together with Microsoft, Shell is
creating a secure, reliable foundation upon which to build these
digital solutions.
- AI platform adoption. Shell and Microsoft share
ambitions around AI and its ability to augment human capacity.
Leveraging the C3 IoT Platform on Microsoft Azure for a broad set
of AI applications, Shell will start with predictive maintenance
for more than hundreds of thousands of critical assets globally. It
will then expand to support other machine learning, machine vision
and natural language processing-based use cases.
- AI in action. As Shell's technology ambitions continue
to evolve through the Microsoft partnership, the company has made
progress in two key areas of the business already with artificial
intelligence tools:
-
- Shell developed Geodesic™ to improve the accuracy and
consistency of a horizontal well's directional control to reach the
most productive layers of rock containing oil and gas. The solution
streamlines drilling data and processes algorithms that make
real-time decisions and better predict their outcomes. It features
a "drilling simulator," easy user interface, and a suite of tested
algorithms that give geologists and drillers the ability to
visualize layers of oil and gas rock in a unique environment.
Geodesic™ is now being scaled across Shell's wells portfolio, and
its impact is by minimizing uncertainty, well misplacement, and
risk of collision among wells from a single location and furthering
safety.
- To ensure the safety of employees and customers at its retail
sites, Shell developed a new cloud-based, deep learning solution
built on Microsoft Azure that uses closed-circuit camera footage
and Internet of Things technology to automatically identify safety
hazards and alert employees, so they can quickly respond and
eliminate potential problems.
- Employee empowerment. To foster more social,
seamless and integrated digital experiences for its workforce of
over 84,000 global employees, Shell will leverage three integrated
Office 365 communication apps, Microsoft Stream, an enterprise
video service; SharePoint Online, a content collaboration
repository; and Yammer, a corporate social network, to modernize
its communication channels. This allows for a continued,
streamlined capability to communicate with employees in a more
personalized and collaborative way, thus growing thriving internal
communities.
About Royal Dutch Shell
plc
Royal Dutch Shell plc is
incorporated in England and
Wales, has its headquarters in
The Hague and is listed on the
London, Amsterdam, and New
York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in
more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including
oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of
liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing
and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy
projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
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